Profit calculator
What a move is actually worth, on the instrument you actually trade. Ten pips is $100 on EUR/USD, about $65 on USD/JPY and a different number again on gold — because contract size and quote currency decide it, not habit.
Long 1 lot of EUR/USD
+$540.00
54.0 pips in your favour at $10.00 per pip.
Move
+0.00540
54.0 pips
Margin posted
$1,080
at 1:100
Return on margin
50%
what leverage actually changes
The same trade the other way
Taken short instead, this move returns -$540.00 — the mirror image, because profit is the price distance times the contract size, and nothing else. Leverage does not appear in that sentence. It decides only whether your balance is large enough to open the position: here $1,080 at 1:100, and $3,600 at the 1:30 cap that applies to retail clients in the UK, EU and Australia.
What this leaves out
Spread, commission and swap. On a single trade they look small; over a year of trading they are usually the largest recurring expense in the account. Price yours with your broker’s own terms.
Leverage is not in the formula
Profit is price distance times contract size times position size. Leverage appears nowhere in that sentence, and that is not a simplification — it is the whole of it. What leverage decides is how much of your balance the broker holds while the position is open.
The reason it feels otherwise is return on margin. The same $100 gain looks like 1% against $10,000 of posted margin and 10% against $1,000. The gain did not change; the denominator did. And the loss shrinks the denominator in exactly the same proportion, which is why accounts on high leverage do not die slowly.
This is the gross number
Your broker takes a slice on the way in and, if you hold, every night after. On a scalp the spread can be a material share of the move. On a three-week hold, swap alone can exceed it. Neither appears above.
Take the spread, commission and swap from your platform and see what a year of that costs on the trading cost calculator. And before the trade, size it from your stop with the position size calculator — that is the number that decides whether a losing streak is survivable.
Questions
- How do you calculate forex profit?
- Profit = price distance x contract size x position size, converted to your account currency. One standard lot of EUR/USD is 100,000 units, so a 0.0010 move — ten pips — is $100. The conversion step is what people miss: on USD/JPY the profit arrives in yen and has to be converted back, which is why ten pips there is about $65 rather than $100.
- Does leverage increase my profit?
- No. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in retail trading. Leverage determines the margin you must post to open a position — it has no effect on what a price move pays you. One lot of EUR/USD earns $10 a pip at 1:30 and $10 a pip at 1:500. What changes is the return on the margin you posted, which is why high leverage feels like it multiplies gains: the same profit against a smaller deposit. The loss is multiplied in exactly the same way.
- Why is my broker’s profit different from this figure?
- Because a broker also charges you. This calculator prices the market move alone. Your actual result is that figure minus the spread you crossed, minus commission, minus swap for every night held. On a scalp those are a large share of the move; on a long hold, swap alone can exceed it.
- How do I calculate profit on gold or an index?
- The same way, with the right contract size. A gold lot is 100 ounces, so a $1 move in the metal is $100 per lot. Index CFDs are usually one contract per point, so a 50-point move on US30 is $50 per contract. Assuming forex conventions on either is how traders end up with a position several times the size they intended.